Rugby World Cup 2015: The 6 worst-ever England results

Defeat to Fiji in the 2015 Rugby World Cup opener at Twickenham tonight would be a disastrous start for the host nation.

England have come a cropper or two at previous Rugby World Cups.

Here’s the six of the worst, or best if you are a non-England fan.

1987: England 3 Wales 16

England were knocked out in the quarter-finals at Brisbane by a decidely average Wales side.

All England can manage is a Jon Webb penalty with Rob Jones and John Devereux scoring the Welsh tries.

1991: England 6 Australia 12

England lost the first game of the tournament to the All Blacks but then found their form, steamrollering the opposition with some dominant pack performances.

But then in the final, England changed tactics and chucked the ball about with gay abandon and lost to the Aussies.

1995: England 29 New Zealand 45

You’ve all seen the clips of this semi-final, Zinzan Brooke casually knocks over a 40-metre drop goal and Jonah Lomu tramples all over Tony Underwood to score one of his trademark tries.

It looks a great game by the scoreline, but England are made to look old and slow by the best team in the tournament.

1999: England 21 South Africa 44

A case of England not being able to hold their Beer in Paris.

Hopes were high for Clive Woodward’s side but Jannie De Beer knocked over a Test world record five drop goals to beat us single-handedly in the quarter-finals.

2007: England 0 South Africa 36

England’s worst World Cup defeat-ever as the Springboks avenged the stuffing dished out in 2003 by whitewashing Brian Ashton’s team.

This loss came in the group stage, but when Jonny Wilkinson returned England made it through to the final in Paris, where they lost, surprise, surprise, to South Africa.

2011: England 12 France 19

To say England were poor in New Zealand would be being kind, but France seemed in an even worse state after losing to minnows Tonga in their group.

After humbling France in the 2003 and 07 semis, England were this time outplayed by Les Blues, first-half tries from Vincent Clerc and Maxime Medard sending them to a sorry defeat in the quarter-finals.